Today is only Dec. 7th and my onboarding team this morning looked like keystone cops running around the office coordinating with different departments, making changes to existing clients for EOY, setting up new clients for launches on Jan 1st, migrating platforms, etc, etc.

This is a professional organization dedicated to Residential Property Managers.

Since all the listings and price related information are publicly and freely available nowadays on platforms, such as Zillow, I am wondering whether building and maintaining a private network is value-added, and if so, where the value is.

Far too many investors have already made the decision to invest in Cleveland for me to dedicate any human capital trying to sway someone on the city if they still have doubts about it's overall economic climate. 

@Yosi Mizrachi I would consider starting with a REITs or online real estate investing platforms to get a taste of what it's like before barreling down the road of buying multiple properties. 

Website creation is pretty simple if you have an eye for design.Everyone is going to be looking for your website on your business cards, on your online presences, social media platforms, etc.

I'll be separating in fall 2019, however, to start my life as a civilian.I've known that financial freedom is one of my most important goals for some time, and I'm pretty dang confident I have the work ethic and dedication to make it happen.

When you close on it and own it and everything is set up then it can be passive and work out great but there is work to find the right property and dedicate the proper time to get it to closing.   

It sounds like you haven't decided whether you want to upgrade your personal residence or buy a dedicated investment property -- that's another consideration, too!

Now a larger flipper that has a dedicated contractor and does enough work to get those bulk discounts will be less effected and should be fine.